I'm not dead and I'm so, so sorry for the reeeeaaaally long wait but life is just too chaotic and unwell and I've had no time to do anything, and then my internet went down so u would have gotten this earlier but anyway, this is me begging you to not hunt me down with burning torches...pretty please.

This chapter is shorter than I would have liked but I liked the cliffy and decided some was better than nothing and I am already starting the next bit so you hopefully won't have to wait long (probably tomorrow...hopefully).

Thank you Susie666 as always for the usual and thank you KatherineMoonhawk who is my new Beta reader – Thank you so, so much!

And can I just say...OMG...the response I get from this story still astounds me and the amount of reviews I got last chapter was amazing – thank you so much for your support. Soon this will be over (got at most 3 chapters more) and I'll be sad to see it end.

Now please enjoy!

[p.s to all that didn't realise, the day after posting the last chapter I re-edited it (a lot of it was off and I'm really sorry) so if you haven't you may want to re-read it]

The three of them rode in silence, the steady beat of hooves alone making a dent in the stillness. It was too quiet for a forest; there were no birds singing, or, in fact the sound of any other living creature. It was unnatural, as if they had all been scared dumb.

Gwen had refused flat out this time to be left behind; arguing that Arthur would need help to keep an eye on Morgana and in the end he had relented, knowing that they had to move quickly and had no time to argue.

They were approaching a fallen oak when they saw it - a glistening crimson coat splashed haphazardly over the deceptively peaceful surroundings.

"What on..." Arthur didn't finish and Gwen gasped. They all looked around slowly, dismounting to search more easily. Even Morgana helped, her curiosity peaking at what could have happened – there were roughly a dozen corpses littering the forest floor, their eyes staring at nothing, their horrorliving on even if they did not. The smell told her that they had not been dead for long and quickly fear eased its way into her mind - that whatever had done this could come back.

"Guinevere?"

She spun around to find her maid standing frozen in front of a man that to have had his heart literally torn from his body. Morgana shuddered as she walked over – she really didn't want to meet whoever had done this.

Once she and Arthur reached Gwen, her brother, concerned, went to comfort her - however, before he reached the girl, he stopped. Something had caught his eye and he knelt in front of the carcass, wary of the heart beside him, and reached for the bandit's hand. What he took from it shocked her into complete silence – it was a red neckerchief.

Do you know he has magic?

He's going to her now...

To find his revenge

He'll be even worse than you!

But Merlin can't have done this, he can't have magic – and even if he did he couldn't be this powerful. Her thoughts whirled - but… if it was true then he was heading for her sister, he was going to slaughter Morgause!

And then it came back to her, all those times that somehow their plans had failed, how Merlin was always there when they did, how he always knew too much...he had magic...

"You finally see it, don't you?" Arthur said as he broke her out of her reverie. He was still staring at the neckerchief that was secure in his fist. "It took me awhile to believe it too – I didn't want to but I had to." He stood and finally turned to look at her, "we need to get moving; the faster we are, the more chance we have of saving both of them."

Morgana nodded slowly and in doing so she made eye contact with Arthur and her mind blanked. There was a great sadness that seemed to emanate from his sapphire irises, and for a moment she wondered what her brother would do if he ever lost Merlin…what she would do? Sure Merlin hadn't always been there, rather straying into their lives when all the drama erupted and somehow becoming a permanent fixture of the castle, almost as if he couldn't die . Of course she herself had tried many times to kill the menace but the funny thing was that she had never thought of what would happen if she ever succeeded. Yes, she envisioned a world without Uther, yes, she had even gone so far as to envision a world without Arthur – but not once had she seen a world without Merlin.

Morgana fell back into her musings, leaving Arthur staring down at the cloth he held and consumed by his thoughts and Gwen staring wide eyed at the man staring blankly back at her, his chest missing its heart. You would think that a warrior prince and an evil sorceress would pay more attention to their surroundings when in a dark wood, but no, they were so caught up in their own minds that they didn't see the group of men till it was too late.

Okay...so he was pissed but he thought that he had good reason to be. Here he was, hands bound, being dragged unceremoniously along the floor, along with his sister and the woman he loved. Yep, definitely a good reason to be a bit cranky in his opinion. It was strange because the first thing he thought was 'I wish Merlin was here' and that was because whenever Merlin was with them they always seemed to miraculously survive...although of course now he knew that it was less to do with luck and more to do with his servant's magical 'talents'.

The doors were opened and the three of them where hauled into the room and forced to kneel on the cold, stone floor, in front of a throne that seated...Cendred? Had he seriously just made their job easier? Because next to him was the one and only witch they'd been searching for, evil and radiant as ever:Morgause.

She smirked at them and stepped gracefully forward, "to what to do we owe the pleasure of the presence of Uther's heir and ward?"

"We came to warn you," answered Arthur, a bite to his tone.

Her brow creased as she looked down at the prince "Warn us of what? Why would you want to warn us of anything?"

"Please sister, listen to him"

At that Morgause's head snapped to Morgana, a questioning gaze directed at the other woman.

"Our fears were confirmed and Arthur does know. Now, please, we need to leave." She was practically begging now.

"I-I don't understand, what's going on?" Morgause asked, as she gestured at the guards to release her sister.

"You destroyed Ealdor." His monotone made Morgause look back toArthur.

"And what if I did? The little brat deserved it!"

Arthur and Gwen both stiffened in anger.

"He's coming here for revenge."At that, both Morgause and Cendred burst out laughing.

"Isn't Merlin the clumsy idiot who's Arthur's manservant?" asked Cendred hoarsely after he had calmed.

Morgause just nodded.

"So what is he going to do? Trip over?" Cendred said bursting into another fit of laughter at his joke.

Morgause just rolled her eyes, a smile still playing on her lips.

"I'll kill you...slowly."

All of them jumped and looked towards the door in shock to see Merlin standing there, his eyes as bright as ever yet so very dark. His posture was one a great king would hold and beside him were two dead guards, considering the amount of blood pooling on the floor.

So there it is, I know I don't deserve any reviews because of the wait – but if you could it would be REALLY appreciated :P

Love LL x